Rapture: We Will Rise And Welcome Jesus As He Returns - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

A single trumpet blast that ends the hush of graveyards. That’s the image Paul gives in 1 Thessalonians 4, and it’s the heartbeat of this message about the "rapture." 

Far from a secret evacuation, the apostle paints a royal arrival: a cry of command, the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God. Pastor Trent unpacks the meaning of “caught up” as the language of welcome, rooted in first-century customs and echoed across Scripture, and we explain how 1 Thessalonians 4–5 and Matthew 24 speak of one visible return, not two separate comings.

Along the way we address a popular modern view of a pre-tribulation rapture, why it’s historically recent, and how the Bible calls us not to escape tribulation but to endure with faith, love, and clear-headed hope. This is practical theology for hospital rooms and funerals, for anxious headlines and quiet fears. No believer is disadvantaged by dying before Christ’s return; no grave is strong enough to keep what God will raise imperishable. From that day on, we will always be with the Lord.

Listen for a grounded, pastorally warm walk through the text, and share it with someone who needs comfort. 

Transcript

Series Launch: Christ’s Return

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, if you have a copy of God's Word, please go ahead and open it. Uh go to the New Testament, find 1 Thessalonians. If you're in Ephesians, Philippians, Galatians, Colossians, any of those letters, go a little further. If you're in Hebrews, turn back a little bit. Well, good morning. We are beginning a brand new series called Behold, I am coming soon, where we will look at the second coming of Christ for four weeks before we turn to the first coming of Christ to celebrate Christmas. Four weeks looking at the second coming of Christ. Today, our first week we'll look at what has been called the rapture. Next week we'll look at what will be our resurrection. The following week we'll look at God's wrath as it's described in Revelation 16 through 19. And then the fourth week, the first week of December, I think December the 7th, we will look at the restoration of all things, where that phrase, behold, I am coming soon, is taken from. Revelation 21 and 22. You know, the reason why we're doing this is because I don't think we talk about it enough. Now, there are a few, of course, who have best-selling books who talk about it probably a little too much and speculate on how things are going to happen, when they're going to happen, and what signs we see in our modern day. But the hope of the church is the return of Christ and our subsequent resurrection to be with him forever. The hope at the end of the book God wrote for us was that he is in fact coming to dwell with us soon. So I want us to be ready for that, to prepare for that, and also to know well, what is promise that is going to happen. First Thessalonians chapter four has been referred to as the rapture passage. It is the passage where what we know as the rapture is recorded. But I want to begin this morning just telling you a little bit of a story. Not too long ago, in my time serving as pastor in a church in Tampa, Florida, a faithful elderly gentleman from our church passed away and went home to be with the Lord. Now, prior to the gentleman's death, he had had a number of increasing health concerns that the church was aware of, the ministry staff knew, and for that reason, most of our ministry staff and church knew that if the Lord did not intervene to heal him in some supernatural way, he would soon die. And so when we received the call that he had in fact passed away, none of us were surprised. His sons and his sons' wives and his daughter's husbands all had come to be near him as he was about to pass. What no one could have expected was that his wife, who was relatively healthy, would pass away in her sleep less than 24 hours later. The morning after it happened, I actually walked into our offices and I saw our secretary, and our secretary said to me, Did you hear about Miss Wilson? To which I responded, I think you mean Mr. Wilson. And then she explained to me what I just told you, and I was very surprised. She was right. Both Anne and Bernie Wilson died within 24 hours of one another, leaving their families to be with the Lord. Now, as believers who know the Bible in this room, there are a few things we automatically remind ourselves of when someone dies. We remind ourselves they're in a better place now. And Scripture affirms that. We see verses like 2 Corinthians chapter 5, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We think of Jesus on his cross, saying to the thief next to him, Today you will be with me in paradise. We think of Philippians chapter 1, Paul, as he's in prison, saying, To die is gain, because to depart with Christ is far better. They're in a better place now. We also say things like, We will see them again. Both of these statements are absolutely true. They're in a better place, and one day we will see them again. We believe that when believers die, their spirit is immediately united in heaven with Christ, and they join a heavenly party in the presence of Jesus, filled with other believers who've passed away as well. So I believe that when Miss Ann Wilson and Mr. Bernie Wilson, the couple from that story I was referring to, who had been married for 67 years, died, they went home to be with Jesus. But while we know from Scripture that believers upon death go to be in the presence of the Lord, what we see on earth is a body that goes into the grave. And you might think, okay, is that the final destination of a bodily life? Will we be forever bodiless in heaven? Will we be, you know, like the little angel ornaments that have wings and are kind of chubby and small and are playing harps? What about when Christ returns? What hope is to come for believers when Christ returns? And if he's to return to establish a kingdom on earth, what hope is there for those who've already died whose bodies naturally decompose? I ask those questions because that that question, especially the last one, is the very question of the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4. Though they'd been taught already that Christ had died and had resurrected from the dead, and taught that Christ would return and reign with believers for eternity, they had become worried because Christ had not returned yet, and some of their family members had died. So they've been in a question. Well, does that mean that they will not be with Christ in their body forever? Are they disadvantaged or will they be left behind? They had questions like what will happen when Christ returns to those who have already died? What will happen to their bodies? Will their death cause them to miss out on all that Christ has planned? The rapture passage that we know of and are about to read together is answering that question. And in answering that question, Paul gives hope for grieving believers. Gospel hope, good news for grieving people. He gives information for consolation. Hey, listen. This is the truth. Let me explain by reading what he says. Verse 13, if you'll follow along. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep. A very light way of saying have died. That you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. So Paul's purpose is set from the beginning in this passage. It is to clear up some misinformation that is causing the believers in Thessalonica to grieve in an ungodly way. Now you may ask the question, well, what do you mean by grieving in an ungodly way? Well, in short, they're leaving God out of the equation when it comes to the death of believers. Now, let me be clear, I don't believe grieving is ungodly. In fact, I would argue the right kind of grief is godly. Because Jesus, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, according to Colossians 1.19, grieved at the death of his follower and friend Lazarus. Similarly, if you've lost a loved one recently, I do not believe it is automatically true that if you have grieved, you have been in any way ungodly. So if that's the case, what is making the Thessalonians' grief uniquely unfit for followers of God? What does Paul say? What does the passage say? I don't want you to be uninformed about those who've fallen asleep, that you may not grieve as others do, in other words, as unbelievers do who have no hope. He's saying that the death of the death of those that you love is particularly hurtful because you are not rightly hopeful. So this whole passage, the whole passage, the purpose is not to prevent you from grieving. You should grieve when someone you love dies, as Jesus did. But it is meant to instruct the original audience as well as us toward a grief that is not hopeless, but hopeful. He is writing to inform believers of the powerful plan of God. You ready? To both resurrect and collect his people, so that those hurting in grief might grieve with hope, and those not hurting might help those grieving. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. What he's about to say is intended to be an encouragement to those grieving. God's plan in this passage is to inform those of us who are hurting with grief and pain at the loss of a loved one, that we might grieve with hope, eyes fixed on his powerful plan. And maybe you say, Well, that's not me right now. Maybe you think, I don't know that I need that right now. And so if I say to you, if you're not hurting or grieving the loss of a loved one, help someone else. Help someone else. There could be others around you in your life or in this church who are. So encourage them with what you're about to learn from God's word. Paul informs the believers of two things. God will resurrect his people and collect his people. And so we will always be with the Lord. Let's look at those one at a time. The first point on your outline God will resurrect his people. God will resurrect his people. Doesn't matter where we are, above or below the earth, we will be made new. Verse 14, walk slow. There's a lot to say on this passage because there's a lot of confusion on this passage. Verse 14, for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. So what's the scripture saying here? It's saying that just as Jesus was raised from the dead, those in Jesus will too one day be raised from the dead. And in fact, he's telling us to ground our hope in what God will do through Jesus' death, in what Jesus, I'm sorry, in what God has already done in Jesus after his death. Ground your hope in what God will do through Jesus after our death and what God has already done in Jesus after his death. You might say it like this just as you ought to draw the hope of your salvation in the debt Jesus paid upon his cross, you ought to draw the hope of your resurrection in the fact that there is a tomb that lies empty. As Jesus died, he paid for your sin. As Jesus rose, he assured you of eternity. This is exactly the teaching of 1 Corinthians 15. That without his resurrection, our faith is in vain. But because he resurrected, we will too. See, I think we talk a whole lot about the fact that we will be in the presence of Christ upon our death, and that is absolutely true. Theologians for a long time have called that the intermediate state. If you have a grandma or a grandpa, a brother or a sister, a family member who is gone to be with the Lord, we believe they're at peace in the presence of their Savior. And yet, Revelation chapter 6 and other parts of Scripture, like all of 1 Corinthians 15, tell us, there is still awaiting a day where they will be resurrected, receiving new, glorified bodies fit for the new heavens and new earth. When Christ returns, we will resurrect. This is what the passage teaches us. For we declare to you a word from the Lord, verse 15, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. Now let's just pause for just a moment. Let's make sure we're on the same page here. Paul is saying something quite simple, and honestly, I don't know that I totally understand it. I don't know that we can totally understand it. First Corinthians 15 tells us that there's going to be a trumpet sound at the return of Christ, and the dead will be raised imperishable. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 35. Someone will ask, How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? Paul responds to the doubting Corinthian church, and he says, You foolish person, what you sow doesn't come to life unless it dies. The trumpets sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, receiving new, resurrected, glorified bodies. Well, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 that those who have already died will not be disadvantaged in any sort of way. Rather, they will precede us in the resurrection. Now, we know that all of it happens in the twinkling of an eye, so if it's point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero one, it's still preceding us. Paul's point is hey, those who've died in Christ will not be disadvantaged because they've died before Christ returned. Quite the contrary, they will arise first and you will join them. He's emphasizing, be encouraged. Your loved ones will not miss out on all that Christ has planned. For the Lord himself, verse 16, will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. So, the dead in Christ, those who have died, believers, will rise first, followed by followers of Jesus who remain alive. The text presupposes there will be believers on the earth who remain alive, who are alive when Christ triumphantly returns. When the Lord descends from heaven, that is, he comes to earth, what will the scene be like? How does he describe it? It is a very loud, triumphant, glorious event. Cry of command, voice of an archangel, the sound of a trumpet. There is nothing silent, quiet, mistakenly hidden about this return. It's not a secret return of Christ. It is one of the loudest verses in the New Testament. Three phrases that basically say real loud. Verse 52 and 53, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, that's this trumpet, the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall all be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. We will talk a lot about the resurrection next week, but the hope that you have is that when Christ returns, you will rise with a new, imperishable, glorified body fit to dwell with the Lord in the new heavens and new earth forever. That is your future hope. Christ will dwell with you in a land where you will really live and feel and touch and taste and see. In a single moment, Jesus will gather his people, both dead below the earth and on the earth, to himself, and they will be resurrected. Those who await in heaven in his presence, bodiless, and those who are still alive will meet the Lord in the air with new bodies. How exactly that works? God can do that sort of thing, and I don't totally understand it. But you shouldn't doubt it. Paul would call you a fool. Just as Jesus resurrected, so will we. You're wrong and I'm right, but you know, you can be critical of maybe even something I like. Here's what I do know there will not be a more beautiful sound to any one of us following Jesus than the sound of the last trumpet when we will meet him as he returns. Oh, what a beautiful sound that will be. When the trumpet resounds, you will rise, and you will rise resurrected to be with your Redeemer. God will resurrect his people to be with him at his return, and he will collect us from that point on to be with him forever. So, number two, the Lord will collect his people. Here's where we're gonna have to talk for quite some time, and I pray you follow along. Doesn't matter where you will be, heaven or earth, you will be with him. Verse 17. Then we who are alive who are left will be caught up. That phrase caught up is where we get our word rapture. It's the Greek word harpazo. It's been translated into Latin, which means rapturo, and in English we call it rapture. Caught up together with them in the clouds, with those who have fallen asleep, in the clouds, to meet apontasis. It's not always very helpful to give you Greek words, but these Greek words show up in other places that help us understand what he's talking about. We will be caught up together with those who had died, with those who are still alive, caught up to meet the Lord in the air, so we will always be with the Lord. This is the famous rapture passage. Those who are alive are said to be caught up or raptured with those who resurrect from the dead on the day of Jesus' return. Are you leaning in? Now, there is a view that says Christians will not experience the end times events described in Revelation, but instead escape seven years before the return of Christ, at an earlier kind of return of Jesus, to go to heaven to later return with him a second time after it's all over. You'll see a little bit of a description of that in arrows behind my head. That view is called premillennial dispensationalism. If you grew up in standard evangelical America from the 1850s to about the 2000s, early 2000s, that is most likely the view you heard from a pulpit read in a popular dramatic novel called Left Behind or watched on a screen from Nick Cage or Kirk Cameron, who now disavows that view, but from Kirk Cameron. And yet, that view is younger than Mormonism and not found in the writings of any Christian father, leader, pastor, scholar, or reformer prior to a man named John Nelson Darby in the 1800s. It's not found anywhere. It was popularized after John Nelson Darby by C. I Schofield or Cyrus Ingerson Schofield, who was influenced by Darby and created what would be the first study Bible ever created, called the Schofield Reference Bible. No one had ever really done that before, written notes inside of a Bible that was sold to many abroad, and people loved it, right? I can study the scripture right by the scripture that I'm reading with Schofield study notes. Well, it got real popular. That Bible and that man, Cyrus Ingerson Schofield, influenced two Christian leaders in America who both lived and learned from Schofield in Dallas. Those leaders were Lewis Sperry Chaffer, who started Dallas Theological Seminary, and D. L. Moody, who was a famous preacher who preached all over the United States and the United Kingdom. Those two, along with a few others, disseminated the new and novel view proposed by John Nelson Darby called premillennial dispensationalism, so much so that it became, for the last 150 to 200 years, one of the most popular views of understanding the end times in America, eventually becoming dramatized in a book series and then in a movie series called Left Behind. I do not hold to that view. And neither did remotely anyone in church history, truly anyone that I can find, before the 1800s. Here's why. That view necessitates there are two returns of Jesus Christ still yet to come. One, a coming for his church, and a separate later return of Christ, the Greek word parousia, against the world. Yet the Bible does not describe an earlier secret return of Christ, but instead one triumphant return when he will separate the wheat from the tares, separate the sheep from the goats. Take, for example, for a moment, your Bibles are open to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Not only does the text presuppose there will be Christians alive at that triumphant return of Christ, that is very loud, three phrases to say how loud it is. But if you would just for a moment in your Bible look at chapter 5, verses 1 through 11. It's talking about the day of the Lord, the return of Christ in judgment, where he will come like a thief in the night. Not a thief for believers because we expect him coming, but a thief for unbelievers because they don't expect him coming. The phrase like a thief is not to say snatching things, like the rapture per se, but snatching things like going into someone's home when they don't expect him. He will come for some who do not expect him. That's what Matthew 24 is talking about. He will come when people don't expect him, except for believers who do. Why does he bring up 1 Thessalonians chapter 5? Is he talking about a separate whole nother event? No. The chapters weren't even divided until much, much later in church history, pretty recently, actually. The chapters just help us find different passages of the text. Well, what's the question? Look at verse 1 and 2. About when these things are to happen, you do not need to know. When what things? Well, what he just talked about. So 1 Thessalonians 4, the rapture event, and 1 Thessalonians 4, the 5, the return of Christ to bring wrath upon the earth, is the same event. It's the return of Christ, the one return of Christ. There is no indication in any part of those two passages that a second event is in view. And Matthew 24, which talks about the one return of Christ, combines both 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Thessalonians 5 with the same message. The church fathers, reformers, and virtually all major teachers expected one final visible return of Jesus, not a two-stage event. So, how then are we to think about the rapture? We will be caught up with Christ, will we not? And that's what the text says. Here's what I think, and here's what the church has thought since its beginning. What's being described in 1 Thessalonians 4 is again Jesus' single triumphant return. When Christ is sent by his Father, he will resurrect his church in their new glorified bodies to meet him in the air. Where we will then immediately usher him in with glad hearts to wage war against his enemies. He calls us safely to himself as he comes down in wrath. That is the separation taking place. Let me gather my people on my side of this battle, safely behind me, to bring me in, to wage war on the earth. We don't go up to stay, we meet him to welcome him, stand behind him as he comes down. In Matthew 24, often misinterpreted, this is the same thing. And some misunderstand that passage to say believers being taken away and unbelievers being left behind. But if you read Matthew 24, quite clearly, that's not what Matthew 24 is saying. It's not some like hard parsing in the Greek. In the context of the passage, he's comparing the future coming of Christ to the days of Noah, where the ones who were taken away or swept away were the unbelievers. So Matthew 24 is the judgment. The sweeping away is the 1 Thessalonians 5. Removal and vengeance, vengeant wrath against his enemies. While Noah and his family are kept safe, sealed behind wood. So Matthew 24 is not about the rapture per se, but about those who are unprepared for the return of Christ, like 1 Thessalonians 5. In Matthew 24, like in 1 Thessalonians 5, God is coming like a thief, not to the believer who expects him, but to the unbeliever who doesn't. So again, I'll re say the same thing many times to make sure it's clear. I believe the 1 Thessalonians 4 rapture is the single final coming of Christ that is in 2 Thessalonians. 2 and Matthew 24, where he will raise us and resurrected bodies at the sound of his trumpet, like in 1 Corinthians 15, most often called the day of the Lord, which we are to be prepared for, like Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians 5 talk about. So there is one climactic coming of Christ, and here's the thing you see on the screen. The return of Christ is the resurrection of our bodies, is the rapture of the church, is the day of the Lord. The return of Christ is the resurrection of our bodies, or we will resurrect, is the rapture of the church, or we will meet him in the air. Is the day he will come down to wage war. Maybe you're still not convinced that the direction of Christ at the rapture is downward, and we will be with him, as the text says, from that point forward. Well, let me give you just a short additional argument. G.K. Beale, a well-respected theologian and scholar, notes that every time you see apontasis, both in the time in which the Bible was written in the Roman world and in every other passage in the Bible, it always means returning to the place that you came from. Every time. Meeting the bridegroom. They would go out of the house to the bridegroom and usher him in. You are welcome here. This is the same thing that we see when Christians from Putioli traveled to meet Paul at the arrival of his ship a long distance to meet him and offer welcome entry into their home. Upon Tathas, they went out and met him and welcomed him. Come here. What has become known as the rapture passage in recent history is describing a typical custom of the first century world to show that believers will welcome Christ's victorious return, not escape from the world. The rapture is Paul using royal Roman imagery of a king's arrival where his citizens meet him upon tasis to escort him into his rightful city. So the rapture of the church is not a secret, silent removal of the church before tribulation. Paul's description is anything but secret. There's a loud command, a voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God. This is the language of a public royal arrival, not a stealthy evacuation. It's what we see in Revelation chapter 19. So difficult for those who hold the former view, the novel new view, that's made its way around the United States, but really not around much outside the United States, is that there is no explicit mention of this sort of rapture in the book of Revelation. That does not mean it doesn't exist. There's just not explicitly written in the book of Revelation. It's in 1 Thessalonians 4. So then we look at what is in Revelation and we say, well, if there is a removal of the church and then no church for a long time, where does that happen? And a lot of people will attach it to just John ascending into the throne room and seeing God the Father on the throne, but it does not mention the church being gone there. And some will argue, well, the word church is not used throughout the middle of the book of Revelation. Well, in every letter written in the New Testament, the word church is rarely, if ever, used in the middle of any book because it's addressing a church, then it talks about saints throughout the earth. And so that's what happens in the book of Revelation. But there is a time in Revelation 19 where this big army meets the Lord in the air and he descends on a white horse and they're in white robes. Well, there is a time in Revelation chapter 14 that all these believers having been purified are in white robes. So I submit to you that that would be the moment that we meet the Lord in the air as he comes down to wage a war that lasts only two sentences in Revelation 19, verse 21 and 22. It's a quick war. Now I share this with you, hopefully not to confuse you, but to bring clarity. And I think it's important to share this with you, because there is no text of scripture that promises Christians that we will escape from tribulation. We will not bear the wrath of God. But we must not think that tribulation is not coming for us. And I think it is mistaken to just say you're not going to experience it. Every passage of Jesus, every passage in the New Testament says to brace yourself, to be prepared, to fight the good fight of faith, to love your enemy, to call them to repent and believe. You will be persecuted as Jesus was persecuted. I should say, before we nearly come to our close, that I have served with godly men and women who disagree with me on this and hold the former view. Good and godly men and women who hold the former view. I think they I think much of those people. I don't think much of that view. But I think much of those people. And if the Lord was to return and call us before things would get worse, I do not think any of us in that moment would say, I told you so. We'll be happy because we'll see Jesus. Here's your application today as I draw this time to a close. Right from the text itself, when he returns, we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. Ultimately, in this passage, Paul is not telling the grieving believers that the believing souls of those who have died are in heaven with Jesus presently, though that is absolutely true. In this passage, Paul is not explaining how the souls of those who have died will be reunited with their bodies, though they will. What he is doing in this passage is encouraging those grieving at the loss of their loved ones, that everything a believer is anticipating at the return of Christ is not lost on those who die before he comes back. So for those of you who've lost a loved one in the past few months or in the last few years, this may not remove your grief in its entirety, but it can bring hope in the midst of your hurt. Revelation 6 gives us a picture of those who've died in Christ, and they're saying, God, when will you avenge the blood of those who still are being persecuted? And Jesus looks to those in heaven with him and he says, wait a little longer. He says, Rest a little longer. And so I think our relatives who have died in Christ are resting in the presence of God. Maybe for some of you that are sick and are hurting, maybe some of you feel closer to death than just others, be encouraged by this fact. Death is but a doorway into the presence of God for the believer. Though your body may lay in the ground, though it may decompose, in no way does the fact of its paralysis prohibit or prevent the power of God from resurrecting it on the last day. And on that day when he returns, and the sound of his trumpet blasts, and there is a voice of an archangel, and the return of the glorious Son of God, we will praise him, saying, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? So death should not lead you to distress, because death has been done with at the cross of Jesus Christ. Death is but a doorway into the presence of Christ for Christians. And death is not our final destiny with our Redeemer alive. That is our final destiny. Encourage one another with these words. Let's pray. God, once again, we thank you for the time to worship alongside of one another, studying your word in its entirety. We pray, Lord, that you would cause it to bear fruit in our lives. Sometimes when we study your word, God, we do not know how to immediately apply it because we're looking for something to say, I want to do this. But oftentimes your word giving us a picture of you and your future is meant to lift our eyes from our present circumstances to the hope that lies before us. Lord, that is application. So, Lord, help us see our future hope. Help us remind one another of our future hope. And keep us by the power of your Spirit, as you promised to do in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 through 14, sealing us until that glorious day. We love you, Lord. We look forward to seeing you face to face. Keep us strong until then. In your name we pray.